Further Research and Inspirations

I had a discussion with my advisor, Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo, today about my research direction and a potential project for the USA Science & Engineering Festival in April. After little success with my pulse sensor experimentation, I had been struggling with what kind of biosensor to utilize in my handheld device, as well as what kind of feedback I would be giving the user. Hwaryoung suggested to look into a GSR (Galvanic Skin Response) sensor, so that will be my next exploration on the hardware side.

As for feedback for the user, we talked about potentially having haptic and visual feedback. My device could potentially connected to a computer or mobile device to provide additional visual feedback.

So tonight, I have been reflecting on visualizations for relaxation.

I did a quick literature search (will definitely dive deeper when I have the time) for studies tying together visual imagery with relaxation.

However, most of what I found either did not directly address this connection. There appears to be many studies with an audio/visual feedback component. But the few papers that I grazed over did not explicitly go over what the visual component consisted of. There were a few that did, but these visuals fell into a more video narrative of nature and life.

I am curious about generative art and relaxation. I find mathematical systems to be beautifully intriguing.

I contemplated what I personally found visually relaxing. One of the first thing that came to mind was Casey Reas’ Process works. If you are unfamiliar this video gives an excellent overview of the system’s evolution: